KU. YAMINI VIJAY SHENDE AND ANOTHER vs. THE S.T. CERTIFICATE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE, NAGPUR THR. MEMBER SECRETARY AND ANOTHER

2026:BHC-NAG:2297-DB
WP No.3721.24.odt 1/13
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR
WRIT PETITION NO. 3721/2024
1. Ku. Yamini Vijay Shende,
age about 18 years, Occupation: Student
(Aspirant to admission for Engineering Course)
Address. Hingna (Kasba) Ward No.5,
Tah: Hingna, Dist Nagpur-441110
M-9518722484
e-mail.id.yaminini2023sss@gmail.com
2. Vedant Ajay Shende,
age about 17 Years, Occupation : Student,
Natural Guardian Father: Ajay Suresh Shende
(Aspirant to admission for LL.B 5 years Course)
Address Hingna (Kasba) ward No.5,
Tah: Hingna Dist Nagpur-441110
M-8669826849
e-mail.id.shendeajay040@gmail.com
... PETITIONERS
...VERSUS…
1. The Scheduled Tribe Certificate
Scrutiny Committee, Nagpur,
Through its Member Secretary,
Giripeth, Nagpur – 440 010.
Email: tcscnagpur@gmail.com
2. The State of Maharashtra
Through its Chief Secretary,
Mantralay Extension,
Mumbai 400032,
email. cs@maharashtra.gov.in
...RESPONDENTS

WP No.3721.24.odt 2/13
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Mr. N. D. Jambhule, Advocate for petitioner
Mr. N. R. Patil, AGP for respondent /State
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CORAM : SMT. M.S. JAWALKAR AND
NANDESH S. DESHPANDE, JJ.
th
RESERVED ON : 29 JANUARY, 2026.
TH
PRONOUNCED ON : 10 FEBRUARY, 2026.
JUDGMENT (PER : NANDESH S. DESHPANDE, J.)
1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally with the
consent of the parties.
2. The petitioners by this petition are challenging the impugned
order dated 06.05.2024, bearing Nos.
JC/TCSC/NGP/I/111/31/2023 & JC/TCSC/NGP/I/112/31/2023
passed by the Respondent Scrutiny Committee rejecting the
petitioners' claim towards "Mana Scheduled Tribe".
3. It is submitted that the petitioners submitted their applications
on 14.03.2023 along with Tribe Certificates bearing No.
40314028686 dated 06.11.2019 (Petitioner No.1) and No.

WP No.3721.24.odt 3/13
40314020080 dated 01.04.2019 (Petitioner No.2) issued by the
Sub-Divisional Officer, Nagpur Rural.
4. It is submitted that due to inordinate delay, Petitioner Nos. 1
and 2 filed W.P. No.2802/2024 seeking directions to decide their
claims. This Hon'ble Court vide order dated 29.04.2024 directed
the Respondent Committee to decide the claims within four weeks
with no further extension whatsoever, in view of the Government
Resolution dated 27.03.2019, the order of the Apex Court in
Special Leave to Appeal (C) Nos.20210-20224/2017 decided on
18.08.2017, and the directions issued at the principal seat in W.P.
No.8264/2017.
5. It is submitted that the petitioners possess 4 Validity
Certificates of their blood relatives, namely Grandfather "Suresh"
dated 26.08.2008, Father "Vijay" dated 11.11.2010, real uncle
"Ajay" dated 05.07.2019 and Cousin Uncle "Aniket" dated
28.06.2019, all issued by the Respondent Committee itself. The
following pre-Constitutional document was submitted:

WP No.3721.24.odt 4/13

6. It is submitted that the pre-Constitutional document (Kotwal
Panji) issued by the Collectorate office, Nagpur on 12.10.2011
records "Gopala S/o Chindhu Mana" and male child born "Suresh"
on 15.12.1948 (grandfather of the petitioners), conclusively
establishing the petitioners' lineage to Mana Scheduled Tribe. The
Respondent Committee failed to appreciate the same on the
grounds that the said record was destroyed and could not be
verified.
7. It is submitted that the Vigilance Cell enquiry report was
submitted on 29.03.2023 and the petitioners submitted their say on
16.06.2023. However, the impugned order does not disclose the
proceedings pertaining to validities granted to "Ajay" dated
05.07.2019 and "Aniket" dated 28.06.2019, though these Validity
Certificates were submitted as supporting documents.

WP No.3721.24.odt 5/13
8. It is submitted that internal Para 10(ii) of the impugned order
mentions a typographical error wherein "Devba s/o Urkuda" was
typed instead of "Chindu s/o Urkuda". "Suresh" clarified the same
by way of affidavit, which the Committee accepted and thereafter
issued the Validity Certificate. Once the clarification is accepted by
the Committee, it should not disbelieve the act of its own
Committee.
9. It is submitted that the Committee failed in appraising the
documentary evidence in entirety and failed in the application of
proper Mana Affinity Parameters. More than 6000 Validities were
granted to the members of Mana community, including the
petitioners' father, real uncle and cousin uncle. The Committee
should have examined as to why the earlier Committees granted
these Validities before reaching its decision.
10. Lastly, learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the
impugned order is bad in law. The petitioners have placed reliance
on 2003 3 MLJ 513, 2017 3 Mh.L.J. 789 (Shubham's case), W.P.
No.8264/2017 (Nikhil Suryakant Padalwar vs. State of
Maharashtra), Special Leave to Appeal (C) Nos.20210-20224/2017

WP No.3721.24.odt 6/13
(Dilip Vinhal Bambale and others vs. Vinitkumar Motiram Tatlod
and others) decided on 18.08.2017, CA 5270/2004, W.P. 1208 of
2020, and W.P. No.4798 of 2022 to support these contentions.
11. For the sake of brevity, the family tree is reproduced below:

WP No.3721.24.odt 7/13
12. Per contra, learned counsel for the respondent submits that
during scrutiny, it was found that the petitioners submitted
different genealogy introducing new persons in their family tree.
The grandfather Suraj Gopal Shende showed Chindhu as Great
Grandfather during the Vigilance Enquiry of his son Ajay Shende in
2007, but disclosed Deoba as Great Grandfather during his own
Vigilance Enquiry in 2007, thus revealing contradictory genealogy.
13. It is further submitted that during vigilance, adverse entries
from 1930 to 1955 were found wherein the caste was shown as
'Mani'. The petitioners suppressed the entry of Suryabhan Gopal
Chindhu as belonging to Mani caste, thereby failing to prove that
they belong to Mana Scheduled Tribe. The documents submitted by
the applicants and found during vigilance enquiry are as follows:

WP No.3721.24.odt 8/13

14. It is submitted that the original entry found in the vigilance
enquiry reveals "Suryabhan Gopala S/o Chindhu Mani", whereas
the document submitted by the applicants shows the surname

WP No.3721.24.odt 9/13
"Shende" inserted. The case record of Suresh Gopalrao Shende
reveals the entry as "Suresh Alias Suryabhan Gopala Shende" with
caste entry as "Mana". It is thus clear that Shri Suresh misled the
Committee by submitting fabricated records in his case.
15. It is submitted that the Validity Certificate issued to Vijay
Shende was pursuant to the order in C.A. No.5270/2004, however,
the Committee issued the validity without disclosing and evaluating
as to how C.A. No.5270/2004 was applicable. Suresh gave an
incorrect name of his Grandfather and later corrected it as Gopal
Deoba Mana, but again gave a different name during the Vigilance
Enquiry on 29.09.2007. Since the validity holders obtained
validities by perpetrating fraud upon the Committee, the ratio of
the said validity was not extended to the claim of the petitioners.
16. Lastly, it is submitted that the petitioners failed to satisfy the
Affinity Test and suppressed the fact that they belong to 'Mani'
caste. The Committee considered all material on record, the
validities granted to the relatives of the petitioners, and afforded
full opportunity of hearing to the petitioners. The impugned order

WP No.3721.24.odt 10/13
is correct and proper and requires no interference by this Hon'ble
Court.
17. With the assistance of the learned counsels appearing for the
respective parties, we have gone through the record. We have also
perused the documents filed by the petitioner in support of her
claim. The oldest document filed by the petitioner and has also
seen in the Vigilance Cell report is of 1948 of one Gopala S/o
Chindhu Mana, who is the cousin-grandfather of the petitioner.
Notably, the said document has been verified by the Vigilance Cell.
The Vigilance Cell however reported that since the document of
1948 is in a dilapidated / torn condition, the authenticity of it
cannot be confirmed. The same has been reiterated by the Caste
Scrutiny Committee in its report and that seems to be the only
reason for discarding the said document. In our view, the said
reason is not only defying logic but erroneous since it is but obvious
that the document dating back to the year 1948 is bound to be in a
dilapidated condition.
18. Furthermore, as far as proving of claim by the petitioner on
the basis of validity certificate of blood relatives is concerned, the

WP No.3721.24.odt 11/13
discussion is found in issue no. 2 the present impugned order. The
reason for discarding the validity issued to Vijay Suresh Shende,
Aniket Bhalchandra Shende and Ajay Sureshrao Shinde is that
validity to Vijay Shende is given without any discussion,
appreciation, evaluation and without any reasoned order. The
reason for discarding the validity given to other family members is
also more or less the same. These reasons also are contrary to the
settled proposition of law. The finding of the committee that the
document, i.e. the oldest one of the year 1948, is not an evidence
as per the Evidence Act, is apart from erroneous, does not take into
consideration the basic fundamentals of the Evidence Act. It seems
that the committee members are searching for novel reasons to
discard the oldest documents of the petitioner only to see to it that
they are deprived of the validation.
19. Even assuming that there is some difference / variance in
genealogy the only document which would be discarded is of 1930.
But the fact remains that document of Ramchandra Shende is of
1931 which also has high probative value. The reliance placed by
the committee on the oldest documents of 1930, 1931, 1937, 1941

WP No.3721.24.odt 12/13
and 1955 as recorded as showing “Mani” also cannot take the case
of the Scrutiny Committee any further as admittedly “Mani” is not a
caste mentioned in the Presidential Order.
20. Furthermore, the finding regarding the blood relations
namely Vijay, Aniket and Ajay not coming before the Committee
with clean hands also defy any logic since the committee is not
supposed to sit in appeal and is not having power to review the
orders passed by the Committee unless they record the case of
fraud. This proposition of law is more than settled in plethora of
judgments by this Court and by the Hon’ble Apex Court. Thus the
reasoning on which the tribe claim is invalidated apart from it being
perverse is contrary to the settled principles of law in that regard.
In that view of the matter, we are of the considered opinion that
the order of the Scrutiny Committee impugned in the petition
cannot withstand the scrutiny of law and is therefore liable to be
quashed and set aside. We therefore pass the following order:-
ORDER
i) Writ Petition is allowed
ii) The impugned order dated 06.05.2024 in case No.
JC/TCSC/NGP/I/111/31/23 and JC/TCSC/NGP/I/112/31/2023

WP No.3721.24.odt 13/13
passed by the respondent - Scrutiny Committee is quashed and set
aside.
iii) It is hereby declared that the petitioners belong to “Mana
Schedule Tribe” and the Scrutiny Committee is directed to issue
validation certificate accordingly in their favour within 4 weeks
from the date of this order.
iv) Writ Petition is allowed in above terms, Rule is made absolute
in above terms, Writ Petition is disposed of.
(NANDESH S. DESHPANDE, J.) (SMT. M.S. JAWALKAR, J.)
Shubham
Signed by: V.M. Choulwar (VMC)
Designation: PS To Honourable Judge
Date: 11/02/2026 18:31:17